


Identities, Surnames, and Shakespeare

by cmdrjade



Category: Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-12
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-02-20 20:29:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2442026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmdrjade/pseuds/cmdrjade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A conversation on the zeppelin ride home from Bad Wolf Bay</p>
            </blockquote>





	Identities, Surnames, and Shakespeare

**Author's Note:**

> Deciding to give this Doctor Who fic thing a try with a super short little thing. Let me know what you think!

“Tyler. Tyler. Rose  _Tyler_. Odd, isn’t it? Names, that is. That you don’t have just one, but two? No, three. Well, I assume three. You could have more middle names than I know of, but still. The point stands, that you could have many names to make up the one name. The identity of you, all boiled down into those one, two, three, maybe more names. A single unit.

And have you ever thought about your surname, about what it all means? Tyler. I assume it comes from the word ‘tiler’ spelled T-I-L-E-R, a profession from way back when they started inventing all that surname business. It came from taxes, the genesis of surnames, if I remember my Earth history well enough, wellll, I suppose it’d be the other Earth’s history now. Still can’t be all that different, eh? Two things are certain, death and taxes, yes? That’s a saying from Earth that translates well all across the galaxy. Doesn’t matter where you go, that saying will always make sense to people, humanoid or other.

Anyway, so somewhere back in 11th or 12th century England someone in your family made tiles, most likely for floors and then bam! They were forever known as John the Tiler. Rose the Tiler. Eventually just simplified down into Rose Tiler, T-I-L-E-R. I don’t really know how the spelling changes came about, I guess it’d just be down to translations or popular spelling habits of the period. Or just dependent on who knew how to spell, I suppose. Tiler becomes Tyler, T- _Y_ -L-E-R, throughout time. And probably a few other variations pop up along the way.

But, really, though, what’s in a name? Heh, oh that wasn’t on purpose. ‘That which we call a rose/ By any other name would still smell as sweet.’ It’s not such a new concept, that. Would you be a different person if your mother had decided to call you Jane instead? How defined by our names are we really? I don’t know if I much like the name Jane for you, myself. Jane Marion Tyler. Doesn’t roll off the tongue quite so amusingly. Rose is a good name, brilliant name, I like Rose. But is that just because I’ve known you as Rose and I have preconceptions of what that name means? What fills in the lines, as it were? Rose is good, sweet, brave, and stubborn. If you had been Jane, if I had known you from the beginning as Jane, would you still be those things? Would we have ever met  _at all_  if your name was Jane?

And for that matter, what if my name was different? What if I was…Tim? Or—”

“Doctor.” Rose turned from the zeppelin window to interrupt his rambling, a small smile on her face.

That was good. Very good. He liked when she smiled. He grinned in response, ducking his head a little closer to her.

“Yes,  _Rose Tyler_?” He made sure to over-enunciate.

She looked away, shaking her head, but he saw her smile growing.

“I know you’re the Doctor. You don’t have to worry about…identities, or surnames, or Shakespeare.” She paused and turned back to him. “We’ll figure it out.”

He beamed and grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers together. She bit her lower lip and smiled shyly.

“Like softest music to attending ears,” he murmured and squeezed her hand.


End file.
